Winter Work: How Hatch Keeps Busy When Summer is Over!

Winter Work: How Hatch Keeps Busy When Summer is Over!

We may only run our trips April through September but that doesn’t mean we aren’t working in the off season. When the summer comes to an end we start what we call Winter Work. As soon as the last trip of the river season is off the river, we’re busy getting ready for the next season.

For such a short and sweet term it sure involves a lot!  It would take too long to go over every little thing we do, so we’ll just go over the main things. The vast majority of winter work involves the maintenance and repair of our equipment. So let’s get to work! 

Cleaning

Everything – and we mean everything – gets a super deep clean at the end of the season! Tables, stoves, gear bags, boat frames, gear boxes, duffel tarps, water jugs, and tents to list a few are all washed by hand or using a pressure washer, most of the time both! 

Repairs

Once all our equipment is scrubbed till it shines its time for the repairs. Holes in gear bags are patched. Gaps in gear boxes and coolers are welded shut. Crooked table legs are straightened. Cot webbing is repaired or replaced. Stove regulators and manifolds are fixed or replaced.

Staff work on repairing cots, sleeping pads, and stoves at the Hatch warehouse for winter work in the off season.

Generator and First Aid Boxes

There are two boxes that we pack for the next season during winter work and those are the generator box and the first aid box. 

• • Generator box: This box is home to many important things we may need during a trip and we like to make sure everything is in its place well before the launch. We go through, clean, inventory, and restock everything that belongs in this box. This includes: satellite phone, day tripper, boat repair kit, generator, blower, and hiker first aid kit. Once everything is replaced in the box and checked off the list we stack all the boxes and store them till they are needed in the spring.  
  • Major First Aid Kit: Every boat has two first aid kits on it: the smaller hiker first aid which guides will put in their backpacks during walks and hikes, and the larger major first aid kit that stays on the boat unless there is an emergency. The Major First Aid Kit includes everything from wound care and medication to splints and thermometers. We make sure none of the medication or topical wound care supplies are expired, which is a tedious job! For your safety all medication comes in single dosage packets and we have to check every single one of these little packets expiration dates.

River rafts rolled up and stored for the winter.

Boat Cleaning and Repairs

At the end of every season both our oar boats and motor boats are taken apart to be stored for the winter. But before we can put them away for the season we have some work to do on them.

Oar Boats

First up are the oar boats! We clean the rubber by hand and with a pressure washer, once that’s done we make any repairs that the boat needs. Then we roll them up, put them in them in a protective bag and up on the shelf they go for the rest of the winter.

Then we move onto the frames. We pressure wash and inspect them to be sure everything is in working order – that the hatches open and close properly, none of the straps are broken, etc. When everything is fixed, we stack up the frames and store them till next season.

Side pontoons for the orange motorized rafts.

Motor Boats

River guide JP (left) and owner Steve Hatch (right) sand off the outermost layer of rubber to prepare to apply a fresh layer.

Next are the motor boats. These by far involve the most work. After we take everything apart, we scrub and pressure wash all the boxes that were on the boat and make any necessary repairs to them. Then we do the same to the frames before moving onto the straps.

Straps are used to hold all the gear and boxes to the frames and to hold the frames to the rubber part of the boat. All of these straps have custom measurements and modifications. Because the specifications for our straps are unique, we make them ourselves! We order all the materials needed to make them and then we measure, cut, and sew all of them ourselves.

After the boxes, straps, and frames are taken care of, we move onto the rubber pontoons. While all our motor boats are the same style, they are not all made of the same material. The white motor boats are made of one type of rubber and the orange ones are made of another rubber.

The orange boats are easier: once they are cleaned, any repairs that need to be done are addressed. This includes wear panels, patches, and new D-rings, and then they are rolled up and put on the shelf. Next is the white boats. The material of the orange boats is, well, orange so they stay that color their whole life, but the white boats are originally black. That’s not a great color in the Grand Canyon heat, so we have to paint them white every winter. Otherwise, the boats would get too hot to comfortably touch in the heat of summer.

This means that we have to buff the entire boat! This takes about five people and a little over half a day to get done per boat. After the boat has been buffed we do all the repairs that it may need, then we paint them white again. We then let them sit out to dry over the weekend and roll them up the following Monday.

Working in Marble Canyon

We spend four days a week at our warehouse from 8am to 5pm getting all this work done. But it’s not all work!

Because Marble Canyon is so remote, we all stay in the area until the work week is over, which means we also spend most of our free time together. When the weather is nice, we may go hangout by the river or at one of the many overlooks of the Colorado River before dinner. Afterwards everyone pitches in to make one big family meal. It may come as a surprise that parts of Arizona get cold in the winter, but it can get pretty chilly! Many of our nights are spent hanging out around the giant wood burning stove in the warehouse. 

Winter work is a lot of hard work for a couple of months, but it’s all worth it when we see that first boat launch the following spring! Ready to get on the river with Hatch?